Market Research

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Fibre Channel networking sales grew 6% in calendar-year 2025, according to Crehan Research, extending a strong 2024 and lifting cumulative sales by more than 20% over two years. Both switches and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) contributed to the increase.

Crehan Research said the 2025 results exceeded its own forecast for a growth year. Seamus Crehan, the firm's president, said enterprises continue to rely on the products for their most important applications.

64Gbps products now account for about half of Fibre Channel shipments

Customer adoption of 64Gbps Fibre Channel was the main driver of market growth. The speed now makes up about half of combined switch and HBA shipments.

Switch buyers move toward 128Gbps while HBA buyers lag on 64Gbps

Many switch customers have already moved to 64Gbps. They are expected to begin upgrading soon to 128Gbps switches, which recently reached the market.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Server-class Ethernet NIC revenues more than doubled in two years, rising from less than $6 billion in 2023 to more than $13 billion in 2025, according to Crehan Research.

2025 delivers record revenue and record growth

The report says 2025 produced both the highest revenue and the fastest revenue growth the market has recorded. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said the market has followed "nearly a vertical straight line" since the initial release of ChatGPT.

200GbE and 400GbE NIC sales more than triple in one year

Sales of 200 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 400GbE NICs more than tripled over the past year, as customers rapidly deployed high-speed NICs in generative AI networks. These speeds now account for more than half of total market revenues.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Data center Ethernet switch revenues and shipments each grew 25% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, with generative AI a key growth driver, according to Crehan Research.

General data center compute networking demand was also solid. The AI build-out is changing how quickly new port speeds ramp, however.

800GbE branded switch adoption runs almost 100 times ahead of 400GbE

Deployments of 800 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches surged alongside generative AI growth. Adoption is proving much faster than that of 400GbE, Crehan said. In branded data center switching, the 800GbE adoption curve to date is almost one hundred times better than that of 400GbE.

Crehan Research President Seamus Crehan said generative AI has produced much steeper and faster adoption curves for new higher Ethernet speeds.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- The DPU/SmartNIC Ethernet market grew revenues and shipments by nearly 30% in 2024, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure accounting for most deployments, according to a Crehan Research report.

Two hyperscalers take most of the volume

Cloud service providers remained the main growth driver. Alibaba, CoreWeave, Google, IBM, Oracle and xAI made up most of the remaining shipments after AWS and Azure.

Adoption has so far stayed concentrated among companies that rent server capacity to customers. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said the technology has "not yet seen broad penetration into markets beyond this."

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- The data center Ethernet switch market exceeded $20 billion in revenue and 100 million port shipments in 2024, a record year for both measures, according to Crehan Research.

Branded and ODM-direct segments both grow as late-year branded sales accelerate

A late-year acceleration in branded switch sales lifted the full-year total. Both branded and ODM-direct data center Ethernet switching posted annual growth.

400GbE and 800GbE reach one-third of annual revenue after 50% growth

The two speed tiers grew 50% year on year and now account for a third of total annual market revenue. Crehan Research says 400GbE adoption has been broad-based across applications and customer segments. Strong 800GbE adoption has so far been driven primarily by generative AI.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Branded data center Ethernet switch revenue rose 7% year-over-year in calendar Q3 2024 to the highest quarterly level on record, according to Crehan Research. The result ends two consecutive quarters of decline.

800GbE deployments for AI clusters drive the rebound

A strong ramp of 800 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) data center switches was a key contributor to the growth. These switches provide the network fabric for AI compute clusters. Crehan Research expects 800GbE to see the fastest speed ramp ever recorded for data center Ethernet switches.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Merchant-built server-class Ethernet NIC revenue rose 40% year-over-year in calendar Q2 2024, reaching an annualized run-rate close to $5 billion, according to Crehan Research. The figures cover adapters, controllers and LOMs.

SmartNICs grow over 50% while mainstream NICs gain over 30%

Foundational/Performance Ethernet NIC revenue increased more than 30% year-over-year. DPU/IPU Ethernet SmartNIC revenue grew more than 50%. Crehan attributes the growth largely to numerous concurrent Ethernet speed and technology upgrades.

Crehan Research President Seamus Crehan said the market now supports almost three times as many Ethernet speeds as a decade ago, when there were three.

Global – October 31, 2026 -- Only 21% of customer success (CS) leaders can tie AI to revenue outcomes, versus 57% of sales leaders, according to ChurnZero's 2026 Customer Success Leadership Study of 580 CS and revenue leaders.

Sales teams reach for AI first and measure it more consistently

Some 48% of sales teams turn to AI first when solving a problem, compared with 32% of CS teams. CS leaders also trail sales on measuring AI by function, including time saved and team efficiency.

Measurement is the widest gap: 63% of CS leaders have no consistent method to measure AI success, versus 20% of sales leaders.

Pressure to adopt AI reaches 91% of CS and support leaders

A recent Gartner survey cited in the study found 91% of customer success and support leaders are under pressure to implement AI. ChurnZero warns that this pressure can push teams to automate too many processes too quickly, without a strategy or a way to measure results.

Global – October 31, 2026 -- Net revenue retention (NRR) in SaaS has not improved in three years, even though 81% of customer success (CS) leaders say AI cuts the time their teams spend on manual tasks, according to ChurnZero's 2026 Customer Success Leadership Study.

The survey polled almost 580 CS leaders. Respondents named logging tasks, summarizing leads and calls, and account research as the main workloads AI now handles. NRR remained flat from 2024 through 2026.

Teams with mature AI report higher retention: 64.6% versus 39.4%

AI maturity, not time savings, tracks with results. Among strategic, AI-driven teams, 64.6% reported NRR of 100% or higher. Among teams with underdeveloped AI, the share was 39.4%.

Global – October 31, 2026 -- Sixty-five percent of strategic and AI-driven customer success teams report net revenue retention (NRR) of 100% or higher, versus 39% of the least mature AI teams, according to ChurnZero's 2026 Customer Success Leadership Study.

SaaS NRR stays flat from 2024 through 2026

ChurnZero polled nearly 600 customer success (CS) and revenue leaders. Reported NRR has not moved across the three-year period, while the 26-point gap between the most and least mature AI teams on the 100% threshold stands out.

ChurnZero notes that other factors may contribute to the gap, including stronger data, advanced products and services, or better-funded CS teams with more resources.